What happens when a photographer stops giving everything away in an all-inclusive package and starts guiding clients through a virtual IPS experience instead? For Jacqueline Benét, it meant going from a $950 flat rate to an average sale of $2,800, and it changed not just her income but the way she feels about the work she does. In Episode 132 of The Motherhood Anthology podcast, Kim Box sits down with Jacqueline to talk about that pricing shift, the client experience she’s built around it, and the bigger life pivot that brought her to photography full-time in 2024.
The Shift From All-Inclusive to À La Carte
Before joining TMA, Jacqueline was running an all-inclusive model at $950 per session. It was simple and familiar, but it put a ceiling on what she could earn and didn’t leave much room for clients to invest in the products that would actually allow them to live with their images. After spending time in the TMA community and learning how other photographers were structuring their businesses, she made the move to à la carte pricing.
Her current structure starts with a $450 session fee. From there, clients choose their own products or digital files after the session, with options starting at $1,200. Her average sale now sits around $2,800, with roughly $2,600 after cost of goods. That’s nearly three times what she was bringing in before, and she didn’t have to chase a new audience to get there.
The key piece of the new model is what Jacqueline calls her artwork ordering appointment, a virtual in-person sales session held over video call. She walks clients through a slideshow of their images while they watch together in real time. She can see their faces light up, hear the emotion in their voices, and respond to them as real people rather than waiting on an email response after sending a gallery link into the void. Clients leave the call having chosen how they want to preserve their images, having been guided through that decision with care, and they’re thanking her while they do it.
She’s also thoughtful about making sure clients know what to expect before the session ever happens. A short video walks new inquiries through her process in her own voice, so they arrive already feeling like they know her. A questionnaire and a consultation call (sometimes just 15 minutes) follow the booking, not before it, so Jacqueline can spend that conversation listening rather than selling. By the time a client shows up to their session, she’s already thought through what they need and how to deliver it.
A Business Built Around Women’s Milestones
Jacqueline’s photography business spans weddings, boudoir, maternity, and family portraiture, and that breadth is completely intentional. Her long-term vision is to be the photographer who documents a woman’s life across multiple chapters: an engagement session, a wedding, boudoir, pregnancy, family. She describes it as a lifelong client relationship built around meaningful moments, and it’s the kind of business that takes years of consistency to build.
She works out of a shared studio space she manages alongside three other photographers, and she credits that consistent environment with helping her develop a body of work that’s recognizable and cohesive. Before she had a dedicated space, she was bouncing between studios with different lighting conditions, and the inconsistency showed. Now, clients know what they’re going to get before they even inquire.
To manage three separate Instagram accounts (weddings, boudoir, and motherhood), she schedules everything through Later and uses its visual grid preview to plan the look of each feed before posts go live. Separating the accounts took some adjusting, but the clarity it’s created for each segment of her business has made it worthwhile. People who come to her wedding account see weddings. People who find her boudoir account find boudoir. There’s no guessing about what she offers or who she serves.
What Community Made Possible
Jacqueline is clear about the role TMA played in her business growth. Before she found the community, she didn’t have a framework for rethinking her pricing or her client experience. She was operating in relative isolation, doing good work but not knowing what she didn’t know. What the TMA community gave her was a place to observe, ask questions, and piece together an approach that felt right for her specific business and her specific clients.
She talks about reading posts from other photographers working through the same fears, watching people share their wins, and picking up small process improvements along the way: a different way to explain pricing, a new way to structure the inquiry experience, a smarter approach to client education. None of it was handed to her as a formula. It was a matter of being in a room with people who were figuring it out alongside her and sharing what they learned.
That kind of community is harder to find than it sounds. Jacqueline went through years of graduate school in a world that wasn’t doing anything like what she ultimately wanted, and she felt that isolation. Having a space where her questions were welcomed and her wins were celebrated made the harder parts of building a business feel a lot more navigable.
Listen and Learn More
Jacqueline Benét left a biomedical PhD and a nine-to-five in the science industry to build a photography business that gives her the freedom to be present with her family and the fulfillment of doing work she loves. The pricing model, the virtual IPS process, the client experience she’s crafted, none of it happened overnight. It happened because she kept learning, kept adjusting, and stayed connected to a community that helped her see what was possible.
You can find Jacqueline’s work at jacquelinebenet.com and on Instagram at @jacquelinebenet.motherhood. She also hosts her own podcast – The Pursue Purpose Podcast – documenting her journey from corporate science to full-time photography, worth adding to your rotation.
Ready to build a business that reflects your own creative voice? The Motherhood Anthology membership gives you access to expert mentors, live coaching, monthly marketing suites, and a private community of photographers who are invested in your success. Learn more and join at themotherhoodanthology.com.
The Motherhood Anthology is a community and educational resource for photographers who want a profitable and sustainable business they love. With 15+ expert mentors and 7+ years of proven content, TMA helps portrait photographers build confident, thriving businesses through monthly education, mentorship, and a supportive community of 700+ members.
